Hon. Amobi Ogah, the member of Congress for Abia State’s Isikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency, has been accused by the Labour Party, LP, of colluding with the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to have him removed from office.
According to a report by InfoStride News, on September 29 the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal in Umuahia removed the member who had been declared the winner of the February 25 election.
The Reps member, however, did not accept the tribunal’s decision and so filed an appeal with the Appellate Court.
However, due to a tense situation on Thursday at the Appeal Court in Lagos State, the hearing of the appeal was postponed.
Obiora Ifoh, the LP’s national publicity secretary, wrote an open letter to INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu on Friday, alleging that the electoral umpire, who is also a respondent in the case, made a last-minute decision to switch lawyers.
The letter explained that the party was against the unexpected shift, but that some members of the ruling APC and a subset of the LP were in favor of it.
“Sir, what played out yesterday, October 19th, 2023, was unbelievable; hence, we call on you to nip the development in the bud to avoid a messy situation,” the letter reads in part.
In a letter of authorization, “INEC had retained Senior Counsel, J.O. Asoluka (SAN), to act as its lawyer.”
“However, at the start of the hearing in the Appeal Court, another lawyer surfaced with another letter of authority to take over the matter of the same INEC without giving J.O Asoluka (SAN) any advance knowledge that the new counsel had been engaged.
They also didn’t think it was necessary to notify the plaintiff of the change in circumstances as the law mandated. This prompted a dispute between the two attorneys as to who was authorized to act on behalf of INEC in this instance.
Some expelled members of the Labour Party led by Lamidi Apapa were conspicuously present at the venue of the Appeal Court. Some APC leaders were also present, and they are on record as openly socializing with Apapa cohorts and bragging that they will buy judgment at any cost.
And they tried, and failed, to seize control of the Labour Party’s legal team.
“Chairman sir, it has just occurred to us that the change of legal guard without properly notifying the interested parties was carefully orchestrated by the Commission in alliance with our opponents to delay proceedings at the Court of Appeal and frustrate our candidate’s appeal, which was scheduled to be heard on Thursday.
Even though the conspirators’ goals were accomplished—the appeal was postponed so INEC could straighten out its internal affairs and decide which of the two lawyers was authorized to represent it in court—time is of the essence, and we are sounding the alarm now.
Therefore, we are utilizing this forum to request that you look into the disgraceful actions being taken by the Commission’s legal department and take appropriate disciplinary action against those responsible.
INEC’s job here is simple: to defend the results of the election it ran, in which it pronounced Hon. Amobi Ogah to be the rightful representative of the Isikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.
The Commission should not even consider a compromise. After the contentious general elections of 2023, Nigerians are still looking to it to restore the country’s reputation. It must not allow a small number of compliant Commission members to further tarnish the Commission’s credibility.
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